Spir Dynamics 1346, 1200-1220 8/13/98; Eph 154; Rev 648; 3 Jn 12; Phil, 2-18-76, 4-4-76; Arm 23, 46-47.

DOCTRINE OF THE ROYALTY OF JESUS CHRIST

A. Definition.

1. The adjective royal means kingly, pertaining to a crown. It’s used to describe a king as the sovereign ruler of people.

2. The noun royalty connotes the regal quality or nature of a king.

3. The connotation is portrayed in both the original languages of the Bible. The Hebrew word used is MELEK; the Greek word is BASILEUS. Both words are used in connection with our Lord Jesus Christ and in other relationships.

4. The Bible not only recognizes the legitimacy of various concepts and categories of royalty, but favors it.

5. Our Lord Jesus Christ now possesses three categories of royalty.

a. By virtue of His eternal and infinite being as God, He wears the diadem of the royalty of His deity.

b. The royalty of His true humanity, by virtue of the virgin birth, Incarnation and First Advent.

c. The royalty of His Hypostatic Union, by virtue of His strategic victory of the first Advent.

B. The Divine Royalty of Christ.

1. His divine royalty is based on the fact He is eternal and infinite God, possessing all the attributes of divine essence. This is Christ’s eternal and infinite relationship with the Godhead. Jesus Christ is eternal God. He has all the attributes of God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. He is coequal and coeternal with them. As the manifest person of the Trinity, our Lord wears the crown of divine royalty, Jn 1:18, 6:46

2. 1 Tim 6:16 1 Jn 4:12. The title for His divine royal patent is Son of God. This royalty has no beginning and no end. All Bible doctrine comes from His divine royalty.

C. The Jewish Royalty of Christ, the Royalty of His Humanity.

1. The royal title of our Lord’s humanity is Son of Man. The Jewish royal title of our Lord is Son of David. The virgin birth introduces the humanity of Christ to the world. The royal patent of our Lord’s humanity is the virgin birth, resulting in His humanity.

2. At the point of His virgin birth, our Lord Jesus Christ became Jewish royalty as a direct descendant of King David in the tribe of Judah, the family of Jesse. Mary is descendant from their son Nathan. Joseph is descendant from their son Solomon, Joseph being Jesus’ legal but not real father. Mary’s line from Nathan is recorded in Lk 3:31; Joseph’s line comes down from Solomon through Jeconiah (who is also called Coniah—see the Coniah curse in Jer 22:24-30, and Jehoiachin, 2 Kg 24:6ff; Jer 52:31ff) and is recorded in Mt 1:11. The Coniah curse is that the Messianic line would at some point be cut off and not be descended from Solomon’s line. This curse was fulfilled at the point of the virgin pregnancy of Mary.

3. As Jewish royalty, our Lord fulfilled the Davidic covenant. In resurrection body in Hypostatic Union, Jesus Christ will reign forever as the Son of David. Mary became pregnant because God the Holy Spirit provided the necessary chromosomes for her pregnancy.

4. Our Lord’s promise of the Davidic covenant is found in Ps 89:33-37, “But I will not break off My lovingkindness from him, Nor deal falsely in My faithfulness. My covenant I will not violate, Nor will I alter the utterance of My lips. Once I have sworn by My holiness; I will not lie to David. His descendants shall endure forever And his throne as the sun before Me. It shall be established forever like the moon, And the witness in the sky is faithful. Selah.” Cf. 2 Chr 21:7, “Yet the Lord was not willing to destroy the house of David because of the covenant which He had made with David, and since He had promised to give a lamp to him and his sons forever.” Acts 13:22b-23, “I have found David, the son of Jesse, a man after My own heart who will do My will.” We fail God, but the integrity of God never fails us. “From the descendants of this man, on the basis of the promise, God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus.” This is the fulfillment of the royal law.

D. The Hypostatic Union Royalty of Jesus Christ.

1. Our Lord’s hypostatic union royalty is based upon His strategic victory during the first Advent, when He defeated Satan during His thirty- three years of executing the prototype spiritual life for the Church Age.

2. By living in the prototype divine dynasphere, our Lord was qualified by impeccability to go to the cross and be judged for our sins. That judgment is the beginning of the strategic victory of our Lord. It was followed by His resurrection, ascension and session at the right hand of the Father. The cross was the greatest battlefield in history!

3. This royalty makes Jesus Christ the ruler of elect angels and regenerate mankind, Col 2:14 Heb 2:14.

4. The hypostatic union royalty was given to our Lord Jesus Christ as a verbal commission, Ps 110:1,4, “The Lord [God the Father] says to my Lord [the Lord Jesus Christ]: “Sit down at My right hand Until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet. ...The Lord has made a solemn promise and will not change His mind, `You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.’” There is a complete break with Israel in this royal family. Jesus Christ is a king-priest. The royal priesthood is formed in the dispensation of the Church Age and every Church Age believer is a royal priest, 1 Pet 2:5,9; Rev 1:6. This is a royal family born again into a royal line. Our royalty does not come from physical birth because it includes every race in the world, but from the new birth. You have the same royal life to fulfill the royal law as our Lord Jesus Christ had on the Cross to fulfill the royal law (Jam 2:8). The royal high priesthood of Jesus Christ is confirmed in Heb 5:5-6; 6:19-20; 7:15-28.

E. The Titles of Our Lord’s Royalty.

1. The divine title of royalty is “Son of God” (or Jehovah Elohim in the Old Testament), Rom 1:4.

2. The Jewish title of royalty is “Son of David,” Rom 1:3.

3. Our Lord has the royal title “Son of Man” because He made the decision in eternity past as part of the divine decrees to come to the earth and provide eternal salvation for the entire human race.

4. Hypostatic union royalty title: “King over kings, Lord over Lords; the Bright Morning Star.” “King over kings” gives Christ precedence over human rulers; “Lord over lords” gives Christ precedence over angelic rulers, Rev 17:14; 19:16; Rev 22:17.

5. The royal title “The Logos” is based on our Lord’s decision to come into the world and provide eternal salvation. This was an unknown title until it was recorded in the word of God.

F. The Royal Families of Jesus Christ.

1. Divine royalty includes God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ always had this family in His divine royalty and always will.

2. Jewish royalty is the dynasty of David.

a. All His ancestors from David and Bathsheba down to his legal father Joseph and His real mother Mary.

b. His stepbrothers: James, Joseph Jr., Simon, and Judas or Jude.

c. His stepsisters: at least two, being also royal descendants. Mt 13:55,56

3. Hypostatic union royalty is the royal family of God, every Church Age believer. After His ascension and session, there was no royal family for His third royalty. So the Age of Israel was brought to a screeching halt, and the Church Age was inserted, the dispensation for the calling out of the royal family of God. The Church Age is the mystery age, its doctrines being previously unknown. Technical phrases are used to describe the royal family: body of Christ, Church, bride of Christ, baptism of the Holy Spirit, sanctification, and beloved brethren.

G. The Royalty of Christ Applied to His Name.

1. This is found in three words, KURIOS IESOUS CHRISTOS, meaning Lord Jesus Christ.

2. “Lord” refers to His divine royalty.

3. “Jesus” means Savior, emphasizing the strategic victory of the cross, resurrection, ascension and session, Heb 1.

4. “Christ” means anointed or commissioned one, emphasizing His Jewish royalty. Its Hebrew equivalent is Messiah and refers to His Jewish royalty.

H. The Royalty of Jesus Christ at the Second Advent.

1. Each part of our Lord’s royalty performs a specific function at the Second Advent.

2. The divine royalty of Christ changes creation for the millennium, judges ecumenical religion and removes it, destroys the armies of the world, removes all unbelievers under the baptism of fire, and establishes perfect environment for the millennium. In His divine royalty, Jesus Christ controls history. Therefore, Jesus Christ judges the world both on the battlefields of Armageddon and in the baptism of fire to surviving unbelievers. Jesus Christ also establishes the Millennium and its 1000 years of perfect environment as the last dispensation of history, a parallel to the first dispensation of perfection.

3. The Jewish royalty regathers Israel, terminates the fifth cycle of discipline, establishes Israel as the last client nation to God in history, fulfills the unconditional covenants to Israel, and causes Israel to become a great source of blessing during the millennium.

4. Hypostatic union royalty makes Christ the strategic victor of the angelic conflict and replaces Satan as the ruler of the world, imprisons Satan for one thousand years, removes all demons from the world, and rules the earth for one thousand years.

G. The Unknown Royal Title of Christ, Rev 19:12ff.

1. This is mentioned in Rev 19:12, “And His eyes [were] a flame of fire, and on His head [are] many diadems; and He has a royal title which has been written which no one understood except Himself.”

a. The title has been revealed to the Church, but was unknown up until the Church Age and it is still a prophetic title. Mt 11:27 is the key to interpreting this verse, “All things have been handed over to Me by My Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son determines to reveal Himself.”

b. The Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, has the right of determination to reveal Himself. The Son has made the decision to reveal Himself in the infallible word of God, which abides forever.

2. The Son has revealed Himself to His royal family, all Church Age believers, in the next verse and gives us the name of this title. Rev 19:13, “He is clothed with a military robe splattered with blood, and His royal title is designated The Logos of God.”

a. The Lord Jesus Christ as a warrior is described in the prophecy of Isa 59:17, “He put on righteousness like a breastplate and a helmet of victory on His head; furthermore, He wore the uniform of justice, and He wrapped around Himself a military cloak of zeal.”

b. Rev 14:20 explains why this military cloak is splattered with blood, “And the wine press was trampled outside the city, and the blood flowed from the wine press up to the horses’ bridles as far a one hundred and eighty miles.”

c. Isa 34:2, “For the Lord’s wrath is against all the nations, And His anger against all their armies; He has utterly destroyed them, He has given them over to slaughter. So their slain will be thrown out, And their corpses will give off their stench, And the mountains will be drenched with their blood.”

d. Other passages describe the same annihilation of the enemy, Joel 2:20; (In Ezek 38-39 the Hebrew word “Gog” in this passage refers to the king of the North involved in the Armageddon campaign. In Rev 20:7-9, the Greek word “Gog” refers to the end of the millennium.) Ezek 39:2-5, “and I will turn you around, drive you on, take you up from the remotest parts of the north and bring you against the mountains of Israel. I will strike your bow from your left hand and smash down your arrows from your right hand. You will fall in the mountains of Israel, you and all your troops and the armies who are with you; I will give you as food to every kind of predatory bird and beast of the field. You will fall on the open field; for it is I who have spoken,” declares the Lord God.” Isa 63:1-3.

e. There are three explanations and great doctrines that come out of the title “the Logos of God.”

(1) The Logos of the Word, that is, Bible doctrine.

(2) The doctrine of verbal plenary inspiration.

(3) The doctrine of the Logos of God.

f. The unknown royal title (HO LOGOS TOU THEOU—"the Word of God”) has been written in the infallible word of God for every Church Age believer as royal family of God to see and understand for himself. However, it should be remembered that even the revelation of Bible doctrine is not known to us as it is known to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Nevertheless, we can understand this unknown title through the study of the divine essence of Jesus Christ. Our understanding of the unknown title of royalty includes not only inculcation and cognition of the divine attributes of Jesus Christ as God, but the human attributes of Jesus Christ in hypostatic union. Our Lord’s unknown title is not hidden, but deliberately revealed in Scripture.

(1) “The Logos” is the royal title of eternity past in the divine decrees, Jn 1:1-3, which is based on four decisions Jesus Christ made. (See the doctrine of Logos.) This is the title of the decisions our Lord made in eternity past to become our savior.

(a) Jesus Christ made the decision in eternity past to provide unlimited atonement by becoming the only efficacious sacrifice in human history, the basis for our salvation. This was one day’s work in eternity past.

(b) Jesus Christ made the decision to propitiate God the Father through His perfect sacrifice of Himself being judged for our sins. As a result of going to the Cross and being judged for the sins of the world, God the Father is satisfied with the salvation work of Christ on the Cross—propitiation. This eliminates all religions in human history as being efficacious to God the Father.

(d) Jesus Christ made the decision to become the mediator between God and man, and therefore, equal with both parties—God and man. Therefore, Jesus Christ made the decision to become true humanity to become our mediator.

(e) Jesus Christ made the decision to redeem mankind from the slave market of sin. The result of Cross is also redemption, being freed from slavery to the lusts and desires of the sin nature. Every believer is born spiritually dead in the slave market of sin.

(2) Because of our Lord’s victory on the Cross, one day’s work, God the Father added a second eternal title, “The Logos of the Cross,” 1 Cor 1:18, “For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”

(3) At the second Advent there will again be one day’s work and another victory, and God the Father adds another title, “The Logos of God.”

(4) Each of these three royal warrants was awarded for one day’s work by our Lord.

3. Rev 19:14, “And the armies of heaven were following Him on white horses, and they were clothed in fine linen, white and pure.”

a. The armies of heaven which were following our Lord include three army groups: all of the elect angels, all of the Church Age believers in resurrection bodies, and all the Old Testament believers and Tribulational martyrs.

b. Everyone followed Him willingly and was delighted to be there with Him. This is the greatest march in all of history. All of these armies come out of heaven. Each of these groups is made up of millions upon millions of creatures.

c. Every creature who comes back with our Lord will be mounted on white horses.

d. The fine linen is the eternal body.

4. Rev 19:15, “A sharp broadsword comes out from His mouth, in order that with it He might strike the nations, and He will rule them with an iron scepter, and prior to this He treads down the wine press of the wine of the wrath of the anger of God, the Omnipotent One.”

a. The armies that follow our Lord, both angelic and human, follow the principle of Ex 14:13-14, “Stand still and watch the deliverance of the Lord. The Lord will fight for you today.” 1 Sam 17:47, “The battle is the Lord’s." 2 Chr 20:15, “The battle is not yours but God’s."

b. Total annihilation of the enemy results in one thousand years of world peace, the fulfillment of Ps 46:9, “He makes wars to cease to the ends of the world. He breaks the bow and cuts the spear in two. He burns the chariot with fire.” Isa 2:4, “He will judge between the nations. He will condemn many peoples. They will hammer their swords into plow shears and their spears into pruning hooks. No nation will lift up a sword against another nation, and they shall never learn war any more.”

c. This is the fulfillment of the prophecy of Isa 9:6-7, “He will be called Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty Hero, the Father of Eternity, the Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace on the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of the armies will accomplish this.” The Lord Jesus Christ will be the greatest Judge in the history of the world. He will also be the greatest solider in all of history.

d. The end of this verse has a concatenation (to link together as in a chain) of genitives. This is very dramatic. The violence of divine integrity destroys the violence of evil.

5. Rev 19:16, “And He has a royal title written on His military cloak and on His thigh, “KING OVER KINGS, AND LORD OVER LORDS.”

a. Our Lord’s royal title of the second Advent is worn in two places—on His military cloak and on His thigh.

b. He has a new royal title—"King over kings, and Lord over lords.” This title is His authority for rulership of the world.

c. In the custom of the ancient world at the time of writing titles were written in these two places. An example of this is Myron’s name engraved on the thigh of his famous statue, the Discus Thrower.

d. The subordinate genitive identifies what is subordinate or under the dominion of what is called a “head noun.” This is called a lexeme—two words of the same vocabulary describing the same thing. We have two lexemes at the end of this verse. We have the same noun used twice, once in the nominative singular and once in the genitive plural. The noun in the nominative singular is the head noun or supreme noun, superior to the noun in the genitive. The subordinate genitives should be properly translated “over kings” and “over lords.”

(1) For example, Mt 9:34, “He casts out demons by the ruler of demons.” The phrase “by the ruler of demons” is the genitive of subordination, but it is not a lexeme.

2 Cor 4:4 describes Satan as the present ruler of the world as “the god of this world.” The phrase “of this world” is a subordinate genitive, but this is also not a lexeme. (2) Who are the “kings” over whom our Lord is “King?" Mature believers of the Church Age who will rule with Him.

(a) Rev 5:10, “And You have made them a kingdom of priests to our God and they shall rule upon the earth.”

(b) Rev 20:6, “Great happiness and privilege and holy blessing to those who are part of the first resurrection. Over these the second death [the last judgment] has no jurisdiction, and they will be priests of God in Christ, and they will rule with Him for one thousand years.”

(d) Rom 5:17, “For if by the transgression of one, death rules through that one, how much more those who in life received a surplus of grace and the gift of righteousness shall rule through that One, Jesus Christ.”

(e) 1 Cor 4:8, “You already have all you could wish, you have already become rich, you have become kings without us; oh that you did in fact rule so that we might rule with you.”

(f) 2 Tim 2:12, “If we endure, we shall also rule with Him; If we refuse Him [reject Bible doctrine], He also will refuse us [rewards for time and eternity].”

(3) Who are the “lords” over whom our Lord is “Lord?" Elect angels.

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